UHV students meet with legislators at state capitol

Feb. 23, 2013 at 1:04 p.m.Updated Feb. 22, 2013 at 8:23 p.m.

A quartet of University of Houston-Victoria students recently traveled to Austin to meet with area lawmakers and tour the Texas Capitol.

On Feb. 13, Juan Diego Martinez, Moses Olukoya, Destiny Mayfield and Michelle Looza joined fellow students and administrators from the other UH System universities for UH Day at the Capitol. In addition to learning more about how the state government is operated, students discussed higher education issues with legislators.

"My favorite part was getting to meet the Texas senators and representatives," Looza said. "The legislators appeared to already be knowledgeable about UHV, and they seemed interested in helping the university expand in the future."

Looza and Mayfield are senators in the UHV Student Government Association, and Olukoya is the organization's vice president. Martinez is a former UHV student senator. He now is a graduate student and the university's student life coordinator.

Undergraduates from the four UH System universities met for lunch near the Capitol and heard from Renu Khator, UH System chancellor and UH president.

She encouraged them to stay active in the political process. The students then broke into small groups to prepare speaking points to deliver to assigned legislators.

"It was worthwhile to learn about what campus issues were important to members of other UH System student governments," Looza said. "It turned out their agendas were similar to ours."